Jacksonville, Florida — A local nursing home called the police and had a TV journalist formally trespassed — days after a news crew went inside and documented cockroaches, a leaking ceiling, and a broken elevator.
The Jacksonville Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, in the city’s Moncrief area, became the focus of an investigative report after a local woman, Alesia Lewis, reached out to a television station concerned about the conditions her friend was living in. That friend has resided at the facility for nearly a decade.
When the reporter arrived with Lewis’s invitation and consent, she observed and photographed the deteriorating conditions firsthand, with the resident’s permission. The report aired. And the next day, the facility’s response wasn’t to fix anything — it was to call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Trespassed for asking questions
Both Lewis and the reporter were formally trespassed from the property. Sheriff’s deputies notified them directly: return to the facility, and they could face arrest. When the reporter followed up to ask the facility’s director of nursing for a response to the report, she was told not to call again.
For Lewis, the real cost is human. Since the trespass order, she hasn’t been able to get inside to check on her friend — a man who, by her account, has no other regular visitors.
“I’m disheartened about the situation that they no longer want me here. I’m all he got,” Lewis said during a subsequent meeting outside the facility. She was eventually able to reach her friend by phone, and he told her he still wanted to see her.
She says speaking out was the right call, regardless of the consequences. “I’m sorry that you all may be angry with me concerning this here, but it need to be told,” she said.
A pattern worth watching
The episode underscores a vulnerability that advocates have flagged repeatedly: nursing home residents — particularly those with few outside visitors — depend heavily on family members and community advocates to catch problems that internal staff and state inspections miss. When facilities can cut off that access, residents lose one of their last lines of protection.
The situation comes as federal regulators are already scrutinizing enforcement gaps across the country. As SCJ has reported, federal data shows hundreds of thousands of nursing home deficiencies went unpenalized in recent years — raising persistent questions about whether the oversight system is doing enough to protect residents from exactly these conditions.
The Florida Agency of Health Care Administration, which licenses and inspects the state’s healthcare facilities, had not yet responded to requests for comment at the time of the original report.
